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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27413101">Interlude: Space</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pokedragon7/pseuds/Pokedragon7'>Pokedragon7</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Among Us (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Betrayal, Blood, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Feral Behavior, Galaxies, Gen, Insanity, Interlude To Stories Unposted, Murder, Stars, deep thoughts, space, spaceship</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 22:40:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,380</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27413101</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pokedragon7/pseuds/Pokedragon7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The simple ponderings of Purple as she floats between stories. </p><p>A reflection on the previous and a hopeful glance to the next. </p><p>Nothing stood between her and her Mini-Crewmate. Nothing. Not even the void of space could separate them. Purple would take her Mini wherever fate desired, and that was that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26722828">Within Us</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/letitrainathousandflames/pseuds/DarkFlames">DarkFlames (letitrainathousandflames)</a>.
        </li>
        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26831215">The Impostor Dilemma</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackDragon41/pseuds/BlackDragon41">BlackDragon41</a>.
        </li>
        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26725639">Orange sus</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/COUNTRY_ROADS_TAKE_ME_HOME/pseuds/COUNTRY_ROADS_TAKE_ME_HOME">COUNTRY_ROADS_TAKE_ME_HOME</a>.
        </li>
        <li>
            Inspired by

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26501884">Young Blood, Fresh Fangs</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Nightshade_Serpent/pseuds/The_Nightshade_Serpent">The_Nightshade_Serpent</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've decided to put any Purple-oriented one-shots here until I can get her official story up.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Being ejected wasn’t as bad as everyone made it sound. They’d all lineup, every member of the crew, in these tubes that would either eject them if the vote wasn’t in their favor or release them back into the ship. Most times, the voting was fair. They were all equals, after all. The only reason this system existed was to curb the “Imposter” threat in every ship. One, two, or three Crewmates who were not like the others had only one goal; kill everyone on board.</p><p>So HQ devised the voting system to keep Imposters in check. The system was imperfect, sadly. Imposters could imitate Crewmates with startling accuracy, and there were many Crewmates who couldn’t defend themselves properly, leading to countless innocent lives being banished to the cold, unforgiving void of space.</p><p>It wasn’t the same in every place with the voting system present. For example, on some planets, the Imposters were thrown into a pit of lava, or if the base was in the sky, they plunged through the atmosphere to meet their demise. With those places, the end was certain. Once ejected, death met you swiftly without fail.</p><p>Voting systems had been present in space for much longer.</p><p>Another system of sorts had formed over time alongside the voting. With the spacesuits standard on every Crewmate, those ejected could survive for long periods of time floating aimlessly in space without dying. Therefore, if another ship happened to pass by while the one ejected was still alive, the crew already aboard the ship could welcome them inside, either saving an innocent life… Or bringing an Imposter on board.</p><p>That’s how it was.</p><p>On a different topic, people could own pets/children called mini-Crewmates. Small carbon copies of their owner/parent that would loyally follow them to the ends of the universe no matter what. Not everybody had one, but it wasn’t uncommon to see one or two in every crew. Nobody knew how or why Imposters could also own them… And nobody cared to ask.</p><p>Usually, when someone was killed by an Imposter, their mini-Crewmate would sit at the place of their death, unmoving, even if the ship was ready to explode. Loyal till the end. Always. With Imposters’ mini-Crewmates, though, they disappeared into thin air. Never to be seen again.</p><p>Why did I mention all this, hm? Well, I think one could infer what happened to me based on what I’d already said. Hell, one could probably guess by just the first sentence.</p><p>One would probably wonder whether I was an Imposter or a Crewmate. Well, that didn’t really matter. On second thought, it did, but the answer was a lot more complicated than you’d think.</p><p>I was neither. I could be both or none of them. I thought about it some more and I decided it didn’t matter. Not anymore.</p><p>If it wasn’t guessed already, I was ejected from my ship. My first crew. We were family. I knew who both Imposters were, yet I didn’t rat them out. I tried to include them in the family. I prevented them from killing anybody. Nobody died, nobody was ejected. The peace lasted for what felt like years.</p><p>Peace reigned… Until my true self slipped. I thought I could trust them with the parts of me I knew they wouldn’t like, but it didn’t play out like I’d hoped it would. In reality, I should’ve expected it. Why would they accept the real me when they were already paranoid of real Imposters? Of course, the actual Imposters did nothing to stop it. Why would they? Imposters never cared. All that effort to befriend them… Worthless in the end.</p><p>So I did what I thought was right. I told them the true identities of the Imposters. I scooped up my mini-Crewmate and stepped into the tube, expression blank. I stared them straight in the eye just before the embrace of space enveloped me. “... Guess trust can never truly exist when one side never puts the effort forth,” it was a fact. I should’ve known. But I chose to ignore it like a hopeless, desperate moron. At least I always had my mini by my side.</p><p>I never found out what the Packs on Crewmates were used for, but mine carried out multiple functions. It held and hid the parts of me that never saw the light of day. A supply of emergency rations was tucked in one corner. Oxygen filters and storage units were present as I knew were there in the normal Crewmate Packs. Any weight I gained would be in stored nutrients that congregated in a different area of the Pack. Besides these functions and more, there was still plenty of space to store other things, such as items like electronics, tools, unopened food, or if arranged properly, enough room for a mini-Crewmate.</p><p>If I had to describe my Pack, it would be a strange amalgamation of organic and inorganic materials that worked together as one system to keep me alive for as long as possible. Like a bunch of organs that I kept on my back.</p><p>But that wasn’t the mood point here. If I hadn’t snatched up my mini, it would still be in that awful ship, sitting, waiting for me to return. I kept it in my Pack, surrounded in warmth and nutrients that I could spare. As I floated aimlessly in the abyss, I thought. The way my mini was now, I could almost compare it to an unborn baby inside my Pack. I connected them to me through a tube that provided food and oxygen directly from my own supply. Hmm. Yes, it was almost exactly like it was my unborn child, and it triggered some maternal instinct within me to swell.</p><p>I already doted on and cared for it as if it was my own, so this is just an added layer to that cake, huh? Surprisingly, I found I didn’t mind. Perhaps I already considered the mini my child long before we were forced into this situation. And that’s okay. I would protect this precious jellybean with my life.</p><p>Tilting my head, I gazed thoughtfully at the endless sea of stars surrounding me. Space, no matter where I was, had always been fascinating and beautiful to me. The wonder I experienced when I stared at the expanse of space could only be compared to a child’s. The stars, the planets, the comets, the black holes, the galaxies, the extraterrestrial life, the other celestial bodies, they always instilled in me feelings indescribable.</p><p>I supposed that’s why I didn’t mind being ejected from the ship as much as I thought I did. Once the feelings of betrayal and depression subsided, I gazed in wonder at the stars. There was no light to pollute or warp the view, as I was among them. Nothing stood between me and the cosmos. While it did highlight the reality of me being less than a speck in the universe, it reminded me that nothing I did would ruin or tarnish the beauty before me.</p><p>Living colors swirled and danced around me. Purples, pinks, oranges, and reds mixed together in nebulas of rainbows, supernovas that spread light to galaxies so far. The deaths of old stars giving birth to new stars, shining bright. The fusion of hydrogen and helium caused explosions that pushed back against the oppressive gravity of space, burning with energy that shone for lightyears.</p><p>Sleeping among the stars would bring no harm. The universe would continue to exist without my interference, so I could sleep for centuries and the cosmos would remain unchanged for millennia to come. I would wake up to the same sight I fell asleep to, that fact was for certain. Wonder and beauty unchanged, no matter what I did. So the only thing I could do was to admire it, bask in all the glory it had to offer. It was thoughts like this that occupied my head as I floated in the void of space. Watching. Existing. Content.</p><p>Sometimes I experienced glimpses of the life I had before, on that ship. Feelings of joy, tarnished by hate. Feelings of loyalty ruined by distrust. Those feelings, simply an echo of what they once were. It was only me, my mini, and the universe now. “... If only you could see reality the way I saw it, Jellybean…” a whisper unheard escaped my lips.</p><p>“... The untouchable, untamable beauty you’ve lived in your whole life, how grand and enchanting it truly is…”</p><p>Nobody would hear my words, but it didn’t matter anyway. Nothing did, and that was the wonder of it.</p><p>I closed my eyes, letting consciousness and my worries fall off me like rain. Who knew that simply existing could be so… peaceful. If I remained in this relaxed state, oxygen and rations could last a week. If I entered hyper-sleep like my mini, the food and air could possibly stretch to a little less than a month.</p><p>Hmm… I didn’t sense any ships around or see them in the distance. I guess I’d enter the deepest sleep in wait, or die in the process.</p><p>The thought of my mini dying out here stirred a deep emotion in me. No, I would find a ship for my mini. My mini would be fine if I died, but I didn’t know if I could live with myself if it perished instead...</p><p>Waiting it was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Written: 10/9/2020<br/>Posted: 11/5/2020</p><p>Like the title and summary say, this one-shot is an "interlude" of sorts. I have two incomplete Among Us stories in my Google Drive "Draft" folder and this work is the "in-between" of them. Eventually, I plan to share those two stories. Until then, take this Interlude however you wish.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. 9C2I1D Alt. Timeline: Hunger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>FOR YOUR INFORMATION: This is not a sequel to the first chapter. </p>
<p>This is an ALTERNATE TIMELINE with the same characters.</p>
<p>I know the chapter title might not make any sense now, but it does mean something. You just don't have all the pieces for the puzzle yet.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>RED’S POV, ALTERNATE TIMELINE, HUNGER</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Purple… It was like she was </span>
  <em>
    <span>possessed.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The signs should’ve been obvious, but she never approached anyone to ask for help, and nobody could get her alone if they tried anyway.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>It started with Brown. He and Purple never got along since they were in that darned shuttle. It felt like it’d been centuries since then. At first, they thought it was an Imposter who had done it. Every ship has them, after all. It came down to this.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Only a streak of black blood, they found out later, was left of Brown. They were all horrified, of course, and it seemed that Purple was the only voice of reason. She asked everyone where they were, others confirmed each other’s alibis, and Purple had Cyan confirming her appearance in Navigation four hours before Brown was reported missing.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The Medbay scans confirmed Brown to be an Imposter. Cyan seemed the only one deeply disturbed about the fact. The rest of them rejoiced.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Funnily enough, Cyan turned up missing the next day, or cycle as it’s called. Pink had found her leg next to the vent, severed by what seemed to be sharp teeth. They were surprised to find Cyan with the same black blood Brown had, and her mini was sitting at the apparent location of her owner’s death, petrified. Nobody had the heart to move the mini after cleaning up what was left of Cyan.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>The ship’s scan told them that no Imposters remained. They celebrated with a feast and booze. Mini-Cyan was nowhere to be found. Yellow knew something was wrong, though. If both Imposters were dead, then who killed them? Where were the bodies? Nothing added up, but the rest of them were too happy to have them gone to question it.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Purple had been acting distant. Before, she loved rolling and spinning and goofing off prancing through the hallways. Now she walked without even a skip in her step, and nobody questioned it. Why would they? Purple proved herself time and time again, taking on tasks and always finishing them efficiently. She was one of them.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>With both Imposters gone, their guard was dropped. Three crewmates, Orange, Yellow, and Lime were dead. Their bodies, just like the first two, were missing. Nothing but faint bloodstains remained. An emergency meeting was called. Nobody pointed fingers yet, but everyone agreed to do a thorough scan on Medbay. Everyone was a Crewmate. No Imposters. Red didn’t like jumping to conclusions, but maybe one of them was a murderer.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone’s alibis checked out. Purple was told to stop doing whatever the hell they were doing that prevented the others from seeing her. She agreed.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Nobody died for the next week. Seeds of distrust and suspicion spread through the ship. White and Black accused Purple of being the killer. “</span>
  <span>No,</span>
  <span>” she replied coolly. “</span>
  <span>But jumping to conclusions so fast makes you sus. If you keep pointing fingers like that, you’ll be the next ones dead. So I recommend not doing that,</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Her warning was so foreboding that everyone collectively agreed not to piss her off anymore. That was another mistake.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Green, Blue, and Pink were dead. Killed in the night while everyone was asleep. There were no vents in the crew’s quarters and the only ones who could enter those rooms were their occupants. Someone broke in and killed them without leaving a trace. Not even the lock was broken. It looked like the Crewmates simply disappeared into thin air, leaving nothing except bloodstains behind.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone accused Red of mass murdering the crew. Everyone except Purple. She confirmed that he was in his quarters the entire time, as she had visited Red before to check. The cameras showed nothing.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>They tried to vote him out. Purple said no. She stood and removed her helmet, stunning everyone into silence.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Whatever Purple was, a Crewmate she was not.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She roared as she leaped across the table, sinking her fangs into Black’s neck, killing her instantly. White and Red rushed to find a weapon of any kind to stop her, but she quickly tackled White to the floor and ripped into his torso like a child tearing open a present on Christmas. When she found the time to remove her gloves, exposing her long, blade-like claws, Red would never know.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>He somehow found a knife. Spinning around, he frantically looked for the monster but the room was empty save for Black and White’s bodies bleeding out on the Cafeteria floor.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>His breath and heartbeat pounded too loudly in the deathly silent space. He could not see Purple. She vanished the second he turned around.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Red only heard her movements echoing around the room, coming from the vents, in between the ceiling tiles, the walls.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>I always liked you, Red. So passionate. So Determined all the time. A leader. A warrior. You may be thinking, ‘oh stars, she was the killer this whole time?’ and you’d be wrong. I was never a killer. A murderer. See, I got rid of the Imposters first. You should be thanking me.</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Something brushed against his ankle and he whipped around to attack it, but nothing was there.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>But that’s beside the point. If I killed off the Imposters, why did I go after my fellow Crewmates, you might be asking. I’ll tell you why.</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>A purple scaled tail wound around his leg without his notice and he was yanked upside down to hang from the ceiling, knife clattering to the floor below.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>From his flipped view he saw what would be burned into his mind for years if he lived that long. A crazed expression, found only on the ones whose minds are long gone, took up the entirety of her face. That face being on the head of a dragon, two pale yellow horns on the top of her head protruding behind her, two more pairs of smaller spikes pointing in the same direction planted on either side of her jaw. Speaking of her jaw, it was beak-like but filled to the brim with teeth. So many teeth. White, blade-like fangs that glinted in the flickering overhead lights, stretched painfully wide in a maniac smile.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Eyes, wide and bluer than the oceans he’s only seen in pictures, pierced through his soul. Arms now connected her hands, which had morphed into claws, to her body. Her legs were disfigured, lengthened, and packed with muscle, made for speed, also ending in thick claws. The tail that kept him hanging seemed to never end, tangling into one long snake that looped and coiled around itself in a jungle of vines on the ceiling with Purple as the centerpiece.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>His friend had turned into a monster. Or was always this way, and could no longer hold herself back.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>I’ve never had access to food where I came from. Every morsel was worth a hundred times its weight in gold. Yet gold had no value. We were </span>
  <em>
    <span>starving,</span>
  </em>
  <span>“ she hissed, her smile flipping to a scowl like a switch.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>With no food, anything that was even remotely edible was eaten. Even inedible items were consumed, all in desperation for any kind of sustenance. When there was no more food to be found, we turned to each other. Picking off the weak ones to feed the strong. One mistake and you were some Smucker’s next meal.</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>So imagine my surprise when I was suddenly thrown into this dimension, surrounded by food and prey who took it for granted,</span>
  <span>” she purred, leaning in far too close for any semblance of comfort and dragged her long, rough, wet tongue across one of his injuries, tasting the blood.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>While at first, I was bitter, I didn’t hold that against you. As a member of the crew, I was </span>
  <em>
    <span>entitled</span>
  </em>
  <span> to the food here. Luxuries only found in dreams back home, I ate. It hit the cravings, satisfying them after so long of being denied. This pacified me. For a while,</span>
  <span>” that same tongue licked the blood off her teeth, leftover from Black’s mauling.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Red shivered in fear and disgust. “</span>
  <span>I even made a few friends. So few of those back home. Others were better seen as food than friends, but because I was well fed here, I tolerated the idea of having a few allies that I could let my guard down around. Refreshing, as I would describe it. Even if those I called ‘friends’ wouldn’t last the hour in my universe,</span>
  <span>” she hummed, contemplating.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>But I tired of it. There was no point. The food on the ship wouldn’t last forever and with the knowledge of these ‘Imposters’ on board, nobody wanted to dock for supplies in fear of releasing them elsewhere. So I killed them,</span>
  <span>” spit Purple, ideally picking at the bits of White’s flesh still stuck to her claws. The sight almost nauseated Red into vomiting, but he managed to swallow it back.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>When I did, the familiar rush of a successful hunt rejuvenated me. How could I have forgotten how satisfying, how wonderful it felt to earn your kill and eat it, too? Why stop there, I asked myself, when there’s already prey ready, waiting to be hunted? It’ll be a bloodbath! A feast! But I knew that if anyone was against me, the others would rally together and either hurl me or the accuser out the airlock. That wouldn’t do. A waste of precious food,</span>
  <span>” Red waited with dread for the rest of her story but also wished it wouldn’t end. The longer she monologued, the longer his heart still beat, the longer he was allowed to breathe without choking on his blood.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>I would have to be quick. Get as many kills as possible in the shortest amount of time. Quick, clean kills. Leave little behind. Keep food from being thrown out of the airlock. An easy mission compared to the heists I’ve pulled before but requiring my full attention all the same. I think I pulled it off well, no? Nobody suspected a thing,</span>
  <span>” Purple explained. While Red was still consumed by shock and betrayal, he could admit that she succeeded in her mission impressively.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>A sigh escaped her as she mournfully gazed back at Black and White’s remains. “</span>
  <span>I do admit the way I killed them could’ve been cleaner. Less blood to clean up later. A waste, really, but it was the quickest plan I could conjure up on the spot that would succeed in preventing you from being ejected. You don’t understand, with me, </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing</span>
  </em>
  <span> is wasted.</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Throwing up was a very real possibility with Red now. Saving his life only so she could end it herself? What kind of sado- “</span>
  <span>I feel like I should tell you that I’ve only finished eating Brown. The others are safely stored away for later meals. Of course, I would’ve preserved Brown as well, but I never liked him. I didn’t want to have any part of him around me so I rid all traces of him. Of course, the only other person who could tolerate Brown was Cyan, huh? The other Imposter. Nobody missed them,</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Unable to keep his stomach’s contents down any longer, he started to heave. Seeming to know what was going to happen before it did, Purple flipped up his visor and used another tail to turn him at an angle that wouldn’t have him breathing in his vomit as he emptied his guts into a bucket that mysteriously appeared by his face. “</span>
  <span>Apologies. I forgot that everyone who hasn’t been through my situation reacts that way when they find out. I should’ve broken it to you a little more delicately since I knew how weak everyone here is. That’s on me,</span>
  <span>” she crooned as she maneuvered herself to pat Red’s back while he gagged into the bucket.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Every sentence she threw at him only served to have him reeling harder. All this new information, sick, twisted information only now came to light? The rule on Skeld was that Crewmates were only their color, nothing more. Backstories, names, none of that was to be shared, and look where that led them. Straight into the gaping maw of a starving beast.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>What…</span>
  <span>” Red rasped, desperate to squeak his question before she devoured him too, “</span>
  <span>What are you going to do after?</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Hoping against hope, he wanted to know what would become of her after she killed him. What would she do? Did she know how to operate the ship, take it to the next unsuspecting crew, and start the cycle over again? Would she lure another crew here with a distress signal and kill them then? Was she going to let him live?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>For a while, she stared deep into his eyes, no longer covered by his visor. For a moment, Red could convince himself that the one he gazed at now was the Purple he knew. Caring, loyal, joyful Purple who had the strangest mannerisms and the goofiest smile hidden beneath her visor. When she smirked at him softly, his heart skipped a beat. That smile was exactly what he imagined it being and more, the only difference being that it belonged to a cold-blooded monster. </span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>... Hopefully I will find a way home,</span>
  <span>” she answered, shocking him. “</span>
  <span>My world may not be the best, but I don’t belong here. This ship isn’t suitable for the work that returning requires, unfortunately. So I will most likely set a course for the nearest backwater research station that I can take over. Any ships that I run into on the way…</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>That maniac grin was back, failing to hide every glinting fang that filled her maw. “</span>
  <span>Well, you’ve already seen what happens when I’m through with playing house.</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Shivering in fear, Red could only watch as she cackled like some sort of supervillain. When she finished, she glanced between his former Crewmates’ corpses and himself before seeming to decide something. “</span>
  <span>Hey, I’m planning on eating these two while they’re still fresh. The blood has already been spilled and is draining as we speak… They’re not in the right state to be preserved… And I know that you won’t enjoy hearing or seeing what’s about to happen, so I’m going to give you a choice,</span>
  <span>” she began.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Red had the urge to puke again even though his stomach already emptied itself. “</span>
  <span>You could hang there, watching me partake in my meal, or I could take you out,</span>
  <span>” a pause, “</span>
  <span>Let me clarify. I could knock you unconscious so you could wake up later, alive, or I could kill you now and you wouldn’t have to witness any of the events that’ll transpire after your death. So what’s your choice?</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Silent, Red only watched, pensive. “</span>
  <span>As much as you may see me as a monster, I don’t enjoy causing others’ misery. My kills are quick and painless, and I always offer the ones in your position the choice of living with the trauma, or, ending it through death,</span>
  <span>” offered Purple.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Red made a show of thinking really hard about it, even though he already was. Live and suffer with the memories of the horror that transpired in only a few weeks? Or die at the hands of the one who killed his friends? ATE them? He took a shaky breath, the tip of the tail that attached him to the ceiling patting his leg as a mockery of comfort. When he thought about it, there wasn’t any way he could escape the situation alive and happy. It was a dead-end in every direction. Die or suffer?</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Thinking about it took too much energy and drained him. He made his choice. A question suddenly popped into his mind right before he revealed his answer, and he used that breath to ask the question instead. “</span>
  <span>What happened to Blurple?</span>
  <span>” Purple’s mini-Crewmate that she adored with every fiber of her being.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>Instead of her face falling or twisting in a sick smile as he expected, her expression softened. “</span>
  <span>... My precious dewdrop? It’s right here,</span>
  <span>” she turned, patting the Pack on her back that came with every Crewmate.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>Safe and slumbering away. The little cutie. I don’t plan on letting Blurple out until I reach a safe place again. Somewhere I can simply let it play carefree without the threat or presence of death hanging over its head,</span>
  <span>” she sighed wistfully. “</span>
  <span>But such a place will not be found anytime soon. Anyhow, have you made your choice?</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>She didn’t need to ask, she already knew. She saw it in his expression before he asked the question. He answered anyway, “</span>
  <span>I’d rather not live with the horrible acts you’ve done on this ship, to me and my friends.</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>Very well. I know it’s clichè, but any last words?</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>There was nothing left to say.</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <span>Farewell, Red.</span>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <span>There was only the sharp, split-second pain of something slicing clean through his neck, but after, there was only darkness.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>FINISHED: 10/6/2020</p>
<p>POSTED: 2/23/2021</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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